Saturday, 24 September 2016

Pruning stimulates new growth

Sometimes it's not easy to decide when to prune a tree and when to leave it to grow undisturbed.

I've been accused of over-pruning my trees and it's often true. However in the case of the Schotia I wrote about recently, I feel vindicated by my tree's positive response to a haircut that some regarded as too harsh.

When I pruned the tree in August, it was looking rather ugly with the faded remnants of last summer's foliage.

Schotia after pruning - 23 August 2016

Today, barely a month later it has lost most of that ugly foliage and is covered with new growth.

Schotia - 24 September 2016

I have no doubt that some will say that it would have grown even more had I not pruned it, and had the tree been a different species that may well have been the case. But not with this one. Here's a smaller tree of the same species, which stands right beside the larger one and has been exposed to the same conditions over the last month. The only difference - the little one wasn't pruned in August.

Smaller Schotia - 24 September 2016

So far it has shown no signs of new growth this season.

Under the circumstances I felt obliged to give it a haircut to bring it out of hibernation.

No comments yet, but I'd love to hear your view.

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